Tobia Scarpa

Architect and designer of international renown, has always revealed a poetic vein in his design aimed at studying constructional problems in detail and highlighting them so that the mechanisms are transformed into an aesthetic-functional element.

He has always resorted to an instinctive, emotional expedient to do this: seeking solutions as natural consequences of creative thought: “the strength of the imagination lies in resolving complex problems in a straightforward, simple way”. The criterion with which materials are selected, treated and used responds to an emotional logic that perceives many communicative and expressive possibilities for materials deemed traditional. Evocative objects, like the Putter designed for San Lorenzo.

…”there are materials which work with light; they digest it, so to speak” … silver is an example of this, in that it embellishes the shape and consecrates the agile gesture, broken up by the light reflected from the surface. Movement therefore plays a leading role. Movement in the sense of supreme union of mind and body, accentuated by the silver which transforms any utility article into a sort of bookmaker used reviewing the most important events in our lives, recapturing their memory and preserving it in its polished surface.

From the seventies to today he collaborates continuously with San Lorenzo for the creation of design objects, where silver is the protagonist.

Over the years he has received many awards such as the “Golden Compass” in 1969, the “IF Industrie Forum Design Hannover” of 1992 and “Golden Compass” for lifetime achievement in 2008. Some of his objects are exhibited in major museums around the world including the Louvre in Paris and the MoMA in New York.